1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable radio communication apparatus, and in particular, relates to a portable radio communication apparatus having a feature in a supporting device or a supporting member of communication equipment such as a portable telephone terminal apparatus or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, portable radio communication apparatuses such as portable telephone terminal apparatuses or the like have been increasingly made smaller in size and thinner. In addition, the portable radio communication apparatus has been used not only as a conventional telephone but also transformed to a data terminal apparatus for transmitting and receiving E-mails and for viewing web pages through WWW (World Wide Web). Due to this, a display for the portable radio communication apparatus has been made larger in size. In these circumstances, folding-type portable telephone terminals considered to be suited to make the portable radio communication apparatus smaller in size and make the display large in size have been spread.
FIG. 33A is a plan view of a conventional folding-type portable radio communication apparatus 151 in a folding state, and FIG. 33B is a side view thereof.
Referring to FIGS. 33A and 33B, the portable radio communication apparatus 151 is constituted so that an upper housing 152 and a lower housing 103 are connected to be foldable through a hinge portion 104. The upper housing 152 is provided with the following:
(a) a display 105 which displays information such as characters and images as transmitted and received by or stored in the portable radio communication apparatus;
(b) a sound hole portion 106 for speaker which is formed above a speaker and which is provided for outputting speech of the other party during a telephone call from the speaker; and
(c) an external antenna 153 such as a whip antenna which is used upon transmitting and receiving a radio wave by the portable radio communication apparatus.
Further, the lower housing 103 is provided with a keyboard 107 for button operation, a rechargeable battery 108, and a microphone 109.
In addition, the Japanese patent laid-open publication No. JP 2002-516503 A discloses an antenna for communication apparatus including an antenna element, and having a first flip provided in a housing to be pivotally supported so as to move from a closed position located to be adjacent to the housing to an operating position apart from the housing with an angular displacement. In the antenna, a second flip including a conductive element which serves as a ground surface is rotatably mounted to the housing, and the second flip moves between a closed position located to be adjacent to the housing and an operating position apart from both the housing and the first flip with angular displacement. When the first and second flips are located at their closed positions, they cover a controller and the antenna is not at all exposed to the outside of the housing. When the first and second flips are located at their operating positions, the antenna element and the conductive element form an antenna apparatus which is less interfered by the user and which is optimally tuned to the frequency of a radio network.
However, since the external antenna 153 shown in FIGS. 33A and 33B protrudes from the upper housing, users sometimes feel uncomfortable due to the following reason. When the user takes out the portable radio communication apparatus from his pocket, it is caught by his pocket. When the user sits on his chair with the portable radio communication apparatus in his trouser pocket, the user is strongly pressed by the external antenna 153. Further, when the portable radio communication apparatus is suspended from his neck without putting it into his pocket, the center of gravity of the portable radio communication apparatus 151 deviates from the center thereof due to its asymmetric structure, as shown in FIG. 34, in which the external antenna 153 is mounted on either the upper right or upper left end portion of the portable radio communication apparatus 151, so that there has been such a problem that the portable radio communication apparatus 151 disadvantageously becomes off balanced.
Moreover, since the portable radio communication apparatus described in the above-mentioned the Japanese patent laid-open publication No. JP 2002-516503 A has such a complicated structure that a housing, a first flip and a second flip are provided, and the first flip including the antenna element is large in size, the portable radio communication apparatus disadvantageously becomes a hindrance to the user and is low in operability.